imaballa - thanks for the reply but your arguments are irrelevant. I can appreciate why you feel so strongly about BluRay - but I have tried and tried to see the rational from all angles as to why BluRay will survive past 2012 and it just doesn't add up. If anything, transport media will involve solid state applications such as SDHC (or something similiar) as mutiple devices play into the fold (you can't put a BluRay disc into a mobile cell phone). The infrastructure is catching up and will eventually support hands-off data xfr freedom between devices governed only by your account information and your login.
As for the hard drive argument - this is the same risk employed now with saved games and downloaded content - answer: backups for soft data, and anything you have purchased is easily re-downloaded from the studio...you need only supply your account information. This means that you can recover your games - unlike a scratched disc...you need to buy a replacement.
You say sony has a strong foundation with 20 1st party studios - I'm sorry, but I must disagree that this is a foundation at all. Sony needs to drive much better 3rd party support if it is to survive the next 20 years. As it stands, their entire PSP division is under threat of collapse for that very reason. You cannot prop up your business with another of your businesses - especially if 3rd party titles that everyone wants to play are coming out for other, less-expensive platforms. To justify my original concern - Sony has alienated themselves from partners in both hardware and software - and this should be of grave concern to Sony International Inc.
Let's 'follow the dots' in a business fashion and research how Microsoft is pushing further and further into a collaborative partner environment from many different aspects. They have garnered incredible third party support for games and are actively working with future partners like IBM, ATi, Netflix, British Telecom, AT&T and many more. Microsoft is the ONLY company that has pioneered an open-source development platform for it's gaming division leveraging the power of indie developers through XNA. Microsoft also continues to push the envelope with online environments and will show just how fragile Sony actually is with the introduction of the NXE update this fall.
This is just the beginning - and the X360 is just a stepping stone in a much greater vision.
Sony can't see the forest for the trees. It's obvious to anyone who is looking at the big picture.
Fact of the matter is - Sony is only just now coming to grips with the impact of downloadble content and the importance of firmware changes. They did not pioneer either of these ideas - if anything, they were blindsided by them. 2008 is about catch-up, not innovation.
Furthermore, the western world is undergoing a massive transformation to it's communication infrastructure as we speak. In less than 5 years, the idea of 20-100 Mb broadband will be a reality across the bulk of the console and film industry market - and its impact will be much more far reaching than Sony would like people to think.
The idea of tangible media transports is a legacy concept that is rooted in tradition and fear of change - but has no place in a Super-HighSpeed information environment. Devices are becoming ever more multi-functional beyond their core roles and both software and hardware companies are looking to new partner-based ventures to combine products and services.
Sony's failure to create any type of partner-based future for their platforms is the legacy of their greed and lust to control all aspects of their business. They have alienated fellow BluRay partners by undercutting the market, they have fallen victim to a transaction-by-transaction back-scratching strategy to boost exclusives and innovations where favours are done only on promises of cash payments. They continue to endeavour into overly-grand software initiatives such as PS Home without developing any real strategy or practical application of the service.
Despite the success with the BluRay player/Game Console, I believe Sony is lost at sea - waiting for a captain to unite the divisions together and form a real, tangible strategy to ensure their survival for the next 20 years. To call the PS3 a 10-year investment is the right idea, wrong platform...and if Sony really wants that model to work, they had better pick up the phone and start making friends outside of the traditional clique which they have formed around themselves.
People give Nintendo too much credit. They struck gold with the Wii because of an innovation that proved to be wildy popular - but that's where the story begins and ends. Nintendo spent so much time looking at the bottom line on their SKU that they forgot to ask 3rd party studios what THEY were prepared to do - and most didn't see the appeal of a woefully underpowered machine that didn't even take advantage of current technology such as High Definition. Nintendo has lodged itself between a rock and a hard place with a unit that pleases grannies with token tennis games - but isn't capable of much else within the will of game developers.
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rabbitc's Comments
imaballa - thanks for the reply but your arguments are irrelevant. I can appreciate why you feel so strongly about BluRay - but I have tried and tried to see the rational from all angles as to why BluRay will survive past 2012 and it just doesn't add up. If anything, transport media will involve solid state applications such as SDHC (or something similiar) as mutiple devices play into the fold (you can't put a BluRay disc into a mobile cell phone). The infrastructure is catching up and will eventually support hands-off data xfr freedom between devices governed only by your account information and your login.
As for the hard drive argument - this is the same risk employed now with saved games and downloaded content - answer: backups for soft data, and anything you have purchased is easily re-downloaded from the studio...you need only supply your account information. This means that you can recover your games - unlike a scratched disc...you need to buy a replacement.
You say sony has a strong foundation with 20 1st party studios - I'm sorry, but I must disagree that this is a foundation at all. Sony needs to drive much better 3rd party support if it is to survive the next 20 years. As it stands, their entire PSP division is under threat of collapse for that very reason. You cannot prop up your business with another of your businesses - especially if 3rd party titles that everyone wants to play are coming out for other, less-expensive platforms. To justify my original concern - Sony has alienated themselves from partners in both hardware and software - and this should be of grave concern to Sony International Inc.
Let's 'follow the dots' in a business fashion and research how Microsoft is pushing further and further into a collaborative partner environment from many different aspects. They have garnered incredible third party support for games and are actively working with future partners like IBM, ATi, Netflix, British Telecom, AT&T and many more. Microsoft is the ONLY company that has pioneered an open-source development platform for it's gaming division leveraging the power of indie developers through XNA. Microsoft also continues to push the envelope with online environments and will show just how fragile Sony actually is with the introduction of the NXE update this fall.
This is just the beginning - and the X360 is just a stepping stone in a much greater vision.
Sony can't see the forest for the trees. It's obvious to anyone who is looking at the big picture.
Wake me up when the rhetoric stops.
Fact of the matter is - Sony is only just now coming to grips with the impact of downloadble content and the importance of firmware changes. They did not pioneer either of these ideas - if anything, they were blindsided by them. 2008 is about catch-up, not innovation.
Furthermore, the western world is undergoing a massive transformation to it's communication infrastructure as we speak. In less than 5 years, the idea of 20-100 Mb broadband will be a reality across the bulk of the console and film industry market - and its impact will be much more far reaching than Sony would like people to think.
The idea of tangible media transports is a legacy concept that is rooted in tradition and fear of change - but has no place in a Super-HighSpeed information environment. Devices are becoming ever more multi-functional beyond their core roles and both software and hardware companies are looking to new partner-based ventures to combine products and services.
Sony's failure to create any type of partner-based future for their platforms is the legacy of their greed and lust to control all aspects of their business. They have alienated fellow BluRay partners by undercutting the market, they have fallen victim to a transaction-by-transaction back-scratching strategy to boost exclusives and innovations where favours are done only on promises of cash payments. They continue to endeavour into overly-grand software initiatives such as PS Home without developing any real strategy or practical application of the service.
Despite the success with the BluRay player/Game Console, I believe Sony is lost at sea - waiting for a captain to unite the divisions together and form a real, tangible strategy to ensure their survival for the next 20 years. To call the PS3 a 10-year investment is the right idea, wrong platform...and if Sony really wants that model to work, they had better pick up the phone and start making friends outside of the traditional clique which they have formed around themselves.
As expected - but will it last?
People give Nintendo too much credit. They struck gold with the Wii because of an innovation that proved to be wildy popular - but that's where the story begins and ends. Nintendo spent so much time looking at the bottom line on their SKU that they forgot to ask 3rd party studios what THEY were prepared to do - and most didn't see the appeal of a woefully underpowered machine that didn't even take advantage of current technology such as High Definition. Nintendo has lodged itself between a rock and a hard place with a unit that pleases grannies with token tennis games - but isn't capable of much else within the will of game developers.
Yeah - it's called 'provoking thought' - it's what good articles do.
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